Red Beans, Rice, and Sausage

Easy and delicious

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/sausage-red-beans-n-rice/detail.aspx

That link doesnt seem right, trying this tonight:

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil pure
• 2 links chicken sausage all natural, cut into 1/2 inch slices
• 1/2 medium onion(s) diced
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 large carrot(s) chopped
• 1 can beans red, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup chicken stock or bone broth low-sodium
• 1/2 cup tomato(s) jarred, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder
• 1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning no-salt
• 1 cup quinoa raw

Directions

Heat the olive oil on medium high heat and sear the sausage for 2-3 minutes on each side or until dark brown and crispy. Remove the sausage and turn the heat down to medium.

Saute the onions, garlic, and carrot for 5 minutes.

Puree 1/2 cup of beans, 1/2 cup of chicken stock and the tomatoes in a blender until smooth. Add the tomato-bean puree, spices, remaining stock, remaining beans and sausage and cook for 20-25 minutes or until thick.

Rinse the quinoa and drain. Add two cups of water, bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer for an additional 15-20 minutes or until water is absorbed.

Serve the red beans and sausage over the quinoa.

Polenta with balsamic kale

Recipe here. I've never fried polenta before. Which is a shame, because it's delicious and fries up surprisingly well for something that seems like mostly water. This recipe is super simple, and pretty damn good. I want to give it another go, soon, when I have the time to reduce the vinegar as suggested in the notes. Yum!

Pumpkin Pie

As someone who obsesses about pumpkin pretty much year-round, I have no idea why it's taken me this long to make pumpkin pie from scratch. But it has. Nick bought me a couple of pie pumpkins on a whim last week (isn't he sweet??) so I decided that was the kick in the butt I needed. I followed the directions on this site (baked the pumpkins), and even made my own crust (used a mix of butter and shortening). It was a good way to spend the afternoon, between bouts of data analysis and reading papers, but that's another story... :)

Bulgur Pilaf

The usual kale and tilapia but this time accompanied by bulgur.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Bulgur-Pilaf-233989

Ground turkey

We've been making this Turkey and Quinoa Meatloaf recipe a ton lately. It's easy, delicious, and you can convince yourself that it's really good for you, too :)

Also recommended? Turkey meatballs.

New post for recipes to make

Spicy Garlic Cashew Chicken

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/spicy_garlic_cashew_chicken/

Oven-baked Spicy Asian Chicken Wings

http://justbento.com/handbook/recipe-collection-mains/oven-baked-spicy-asian-chicken-wings?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+justbento+%28Just+Bento+-+meal+in+a+box%29

Chicken Teriyaki

We made chicken teriyaki from a new bento blog I found.  Only a few changes, we used dry sherry instead of sake and also cooked some leftover salmon from sushi last night.  We paired the meat with kale and leftover sushi rice.  Overall a really easy and tasty meal.  

Mexican Corn on the Cob & Chicken Sausage

It's been a little while since we have posted but we have been doing a lot of cooking lately.  Recently made polenta tamale pie from the moosewood cookbook.  We used instant polenta instead of premade polenta and it worked great except that we ended up making alot more polenta than expected.  Amber made a chicken in blackbean sauce stir fry from the wok cookbook that was delicious.  There was a bit too mucch ginger in my opinion but delicious regardless.

Tonight we made Mexican corn on the cob  (using the recipe from the second commenter) and farmers market chicken sausage with grilled onions and peppers.

Split pea soup

We made my favorite split pea soup recipe today. I added half a cup of barley and some extra water to compensate. Yum!

Some other recent recipes:

Smoked Salmon Hash with poached eggs (altered from the basic hash in the New Best Recipes cookbook). We made this for a brunch we hosted recently, and served it with some of Nick's famous Bloody Marys. It all came together really well, but Nick says he wouldn't try to fry that many potatoes again without a griddle. Fair 'nuf.

Chicken parmesan, also from New Best Recipes. Served with a side caesar with a homemade dressing recipe that we got from... wait for it... New Best Recipes. There might be a trend here... :)

The Brooklyn Brownie cupcakes from VCTOTW. SO good.

Tilapia, Saffron Rice and Caesar Salad

Tonight we made tilapia, rice and caesar salad.  We used frozen, breaded tilapia fillets from costco and made a creamy chipotle chile sauce.  We made saffron garlic rice from veganomicon.  And lastly, we had caesar salad with homemade dressing from the new best recipes cook book.  Overall, a pretty easy dinner that was quite delicious.

Bon Appetit and Recipes to Try

Jesse gave us Bon Appetit for Christmas this year.  There are quite a few recipes that sound delicious:


Pimiento Mac and Cheese

Lasagna w/ turkey sausage

Super Bowl Recipes

We are  making food for a super bowl party.  I made jalapeno poppers and Amber made chocolate raspberry ice cream (from David Lebovitz's book).

A made four different batches of jalapeno poppers, all omitting the cilantro: bacon bits (veggie imitation) and cream cheese, bacon bits and pepper jack cheese, cream cheese alone, and avocado and jack cheese.

Rye bread

Another stab at the perfect rye sandwich loaf over the weekend. This time I used a recipe from an old Vegetarian Times that I had lying around, and I have to say, I like it a lot better. Less complicated and more delicious. Added some spent grains with excellent results.

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Snow day, take 2

Being snowed in leaves a lot of time for cooking, and today, baking! 

First, a rye sandwich loaf from the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. I think next time I will use less pickle juice, because I could taste it a bit in the aftertaste and I think that offended Nick. I also let it rise too much on the second rise, and the middle crust fell. Oh well, it tastes amazing anyway. I will have to try another loaf soon, because I have a ton of spent grains to use up (from Nick & co. brewing beer). 

Next, the red lentil and greens soup from Moosewood Simple Suppers. I was a bit skeptical of the anise, because I'm not a huge licorice fan, but we had all the ingredients and I was in the mood for soup, so... damn, am I glad I made the plunge. This soup is tasty. I added extra garlic like I do to everything, and used kale (par-boiled before the saute step) instead of spinach. The main flavor is ginger and garlic, with just a kick of sweetness from the anise and coconut. Recommended for an adventurous mood. 

Served with a side caesar... nom on. :) 

Snow Day and Shepherd's Pie

Snow day here in Atlanta.  We got about 2-4" of snow and then freezing rain on top of that so everything turned to ice.  Seems like the city will close down for atleast a day but likely two or three.

So, with our snow day, we have been doing some cooking.  We made pancakes from the New Best Recipes book, 1/2 the recipe was perfect for the two of us.  Now we are making an Italian Sausage Shepherd's Pie.  The recipe is from:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Italian-Shepherd-s-Pie-2 

We used 3 red potatoes, blended the cottage cheese and egg with a hand blender, and sauteed one onion one pepper and one carrot (diced) with the meat from 4 hot Italian chicken sausages.  No pie dough.  We are baking at 375 and will cook it for 35 min before checking.  It is looking delicious.

Blackened Catfish

Made blackened catfish, again from Moosewood Simple Suppers. This is a recipe that we have come back to a few times. It stinks up the house (the oil/smoke, not the fish), but it is easy, and I love catfish. Served with couscous and a simple salad (romaine, avocado, dressing). Yum.

Back from vacation

Well we are back from a great vacation but we seem to have picked up some bugs during our travels. Solution? Soup.

Tonight I made the Tomato Tortilla Soup from one of my favorite cookbooks, Moosewood's Simple Suppers. It was, like most meals from this book, excellent and super easy. I added some frozen corn for added texture, but otherwise made the soup as written. Had bean and cheese quesadillas on the side. This is one to add to the rotation!